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How hard was it? I walked into the T-Mobile store on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, explained that I wanted to open a new account with my unlocked iPhone and get a new phone for my wife. After she picked the Galaxy, the clerk got me a new SIM Card, did the paper work, and in less than15 minutes my iPhone was back up, with the same phone number, receiving emails and making calls. It was as painless a process as you could possibly imagine.

It's not just overseas - I saved real money here at home too when I unlocked my AT&T iPhone and switched carriers. Photo:Wikipedia

(That being said, my first few months on T-Mobile have been pleasant but not perfect. The service, billing and cost have been great, with no surprises, but the salesperson repeatedly assured us, with a high level of sincerity, that we would get a follow up call in a few days to answer any technological or account questions, and another call when we got our first bill. No one ever called. Also, T-Mobile has not been able to get my 911 address correct in their system, and if I dial for help right now, the police will see the address in their database as the T-Mobile store on Broadway, some 250 miles from my home, which they insist does not exist, despite the fact that I have owned it for 20 years. The last time I called, the customer service person candidly told me that they have the same problem and can’t get their home address to work with 911 either - and they work for T-Mobile. If I were T-Mobile management, the thought of the massive ensuing lawsuits from this might prompt me to try to fix the problem).

It is overseas travelers who will really appreciate the unlocking. Once you unlock your phone you can insert almost any SIM card you want (the iPhone3 and 4 series take a different size SIM so be careful), foreign or domestic, prepaid or not. This means if you go to London, you can buy a cheap prepaid card, widely available, slap it in your phone and have an instant UK account, with cheaper rates for domestic calls, international calls, and most of all international data, which costs an arm and a leg on U.S. carriers.

Typically, buying these individual SIM cards by country when you travel is the cheapest way to use your phone internationally. But the downside is that you have to do it every time, you get a new number every time, the directions might be dodgy, and you might not use the money you spent, especially if you are carrying the phone mainly for emergencies. There are many alternatives, including global and semi-global SIM cards that work almost everywhere or in the slate of countries you are likely to visit. There are even ones that let you keep the same number and recharge the card. In the past, I have personally bought SIM cards online from a company called Telestial that specializes in this and has comprehensive list of products, plans and packages (and helpful FAQs) to suit every need, all around the world. I have their Passport card, which costs $19, comes with $10 in credit, and is rechargeable. It works in 180 countries, has permanent numbers (one for the US and a UK one that works globally), and offers data from 49¢ per MB. You even get a voicemail account and texting. They also offer a data-only version.

Note that in general data is trickier than voice, and many prepaid SIM cards will not work and you may have to make a few setting changes to your phone. I would set up my international data plan in advance through someone like Telestial that can sell you the right product for your particular phone and walk you through the process. Alternatively you can go into a cell phone store abroad for assistance, but I wouldn’t recommend buying a card off the rack at a newsstand and expecting your data to work seamlessly. You could also stick to WiFi for data and use a SIM card for voice abroad.

Let’s say you travel a lot for work or pleasure to a particular country. I chose France at random and took a look at Telestial’s offerings (you might get an even better deal buying a SIM card in France). Their France card costs $49 and comes with $14 of airtime and is rechargeable. Once you buy it you can use it forever. You get a French number, all incoming calls are free, including international, you pay the same rate for domestic calls as you would if you lived in France, and international calls are dirt cheap - to the US you pay just 18¢ a minute. With all these cards there is no contract or monthly fees. That’s why you can buy or keep an older iPhone and use it only for traveling without incurring any monthly expenses.

So to sum up, since I unlocked my AT&T iPhone and switched carriers to T-Mobile, my monthly bill has dropped, my plan is better, my customer service experience has been much better, and I can now use my iPhone internationally at very reasonable prices. That’s good enough for me.